AUSTRALIAN START-UPS RELIANT ON OVERSEAS WORKERS

Date 13.10.2014 A board member for the not for profit organisation StartupAus has pleaded with the Oz government to make it easier, and not harder, for immigrants and temporary workers to enter Australia.

According to Peter Bradd, Australian Start-up companies in the technology sector simply can’t afford to bring in much needed workers from overseas and believes that the country is not making the most of the thousands of overseas students who study in Oz each year.

Meeting with government representatives to discuss, among other things, which recommendations the government will implement following an independent review of the temporary worker 457 visa system, Bradd put forward the case for technology start-ups to have easier access to foreign talent.

“At the moment the 457 visa applications are done through a law firm, and they can cost up to AUS$10,000. For a start-up that doesn’t have a lot of money, and doesn’t have access to employee share options, it’s difficult,” he explained.

With regards to the thousands of overseas students who study technology-based qualifications at Australian universities, Bradd said: “We have 12,000 ICT graduates every year and only 4,000 stay – 8,000 are foreign students and it would be great if we could keep them here. Australian is a beautiful country, people want to move here. We just need to make it easier for them to live here.”